Money is one of the most stressful subjects for couples.Source: News Limited

JOINT accounts, 50/50 splits, or secret stashes — there’s no denying there is something fascinating about other people’s money.

Research shows not only is money a major source of stress, it’s also the major thing people fight over and a strong indicator of divorce. For couples, merging money can be one of the most fraught periods in a relationship along with budgeting and money secrets.

Earlier this year it was revealed as many as 300,000 people have a secret account their partner knows nothing about.

And while everyone will tell you about their friend who gets a daily allowance, or the out of control spender who keeps their credit card in a block of ice, it’s not often you get an honest look at how people really manage their cash. These three Aussie couples share their stories:

MANDY, TEACHER

Mandy lives on a farm in a rural community in New South Wales and works as a schoolteacher while her husband is a stock and station agent. They have four adult children and get both their salaries paid into a joint account. Mandy then writes a cheque for a certain amount each week which she cashes at the local bank.

“I just do this weird thing I‘ve done for years. I don’t internet bank. I just cash a cheque once a week and out of that is groceries and household things like any new clothes, new shoes, that sort of thing,” she said, adding that she tries to stick to roughly “four of those a month”.

Mandy lives in a rural community in New South Wales. Picture: Justin LloydSource: News Corp Australia

Both she and her husband have credit cards — hers for big household purchases and his for major farm supplies. When birthdays and baby showers come up she will always cash another cheque to cover the cost of presents.

Mandy said they’ve been using the system “pretty much forever” after she roughly worked out how much she needed to live off a week.

“When the kids left I knocked it back but then I knocked it back up pretty quickly. Electricity, health insurance, all of that stuff comes out of joint account … we don’t have a mortgage and there’s no rent. Occasionally I have a treat and get someone in to do a bit of gardening, I do a separate cheque for that,” she said, adding that they also buy meat in bulk.

Mandy cashes a cheque for a certain amount to live off each week.Source: News Limited

“It works well for us. It is a bit antiquated but in saying that we have petrol on the farm so I don’t pay for petrol.”

She said her friends and kids roll their eyes about the fact she doesn’t have internet banking but she hasn’t felt the need.

“I’m of the generation where some of us are a bit tech challenged. I’ve never thought ‘oh bugger’, there would probably be someone who could do it for me.”

KELLY, MARKETING MANGER

Kelly is married with two school-aged children. She has a joint account with her husband which her salary gets paid into while he has a separate account for his business so it’s easy to manage income and expenses.

“My salary is like the bill salary and his cash business pays for the incidentals,” she said. Major bills like mortgages and health insurance come out of their joint account while they put groceries and petrol on a credit card to gain Frequent Flyer points with Qantas.

Kelly and her husband paid for a trip to the US from their ‘secret stash’ of savings.Source: News Corp Australia

They’ve also got a savings account for each child while holidays and other big spending come out of a “secret cash stash” siphoned off from her husband’s business profits. It’s what bought them a trip to the US earlier this year and it “feels like you’re getting a free trip because you hardly notice you’re saving”.

Kelly said the couple merged their money when they got a mortgage together and don’t tend to fight about finances.

“We’re on the same page in terms of how to earn it, spend it and how to care for it which makes it easy. We don’t ever begrudge the other person for spending money. I think we’re on the same level in terms of how to be responsible.”

SARAH AND ANTHONY, NEWLYWEDS

Newlyweds Sarah and Anthony are in the process of changing their spending habits after getting married earlier this year. While they used to split things roughly 50/50, with Anthony paying slightly more for rent and bills, they’re now about to embark on a new savings plan in the hope of saving a deposit for a home in Sydney.

“Before we got married we just ran all of our own money. If we were going out for dinner or shopping or doing groceries we would just keep track and pay each other back. It was bloody annoying,” Sarah said.

Plenty of couples decide to merge their money once they get married. Picture: Thinkstock.Source: Supplied

“We’d always planned to merge. We sort of talked about it before the wedding and we said we’d just wait until afterwards.”

They’ve recently set up a joint everyday account online and will both put a certain amount in each month to cover weekly expenses and plan to put savings into their mortgage offset account.

“At this stage we’ll keep our separate bank accounts for personal savings and put a certain amount in our joint account for everyday spending like food, dinners, gym memberships, all the stuff both of us do. Plus we’ll allocate a certain amount of savings to go into the offset mortgage account so each month we’re saving,” she said.

Matching spending habits is a major source of stress for couples.Source: News Limited

“This is the intermediate stage, in the end the plan is to have all our pay go into our offset account and give ourselves spending money and we won’t have our separate accounts.”

She said Anthony takes care of most of their bills — a hangover from them both living in an investment property he owned — but she is the one that has to keep his spending habits in check.

“He likes going out to restaurants, buying clothes … I have to say we can only do a certain amount of things.”

They’ve recently cut back on extras such as a cleaner and personal training sessions and try to go out just one night a week.

“We’re both quite daunted looking at property prices and thinking ‘my god, how are we going to get there?’ but we’ve both decided we’ve got to keep going. All the savings we can get now are going to help in the long term and then we’ll look at what the options are.”

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